Hearts

The audition seems unusual. It appears to be in someone’s home, a very beautiful, well-appointed home decorated in with items of gold, maroon and muted green, the familiar palate of the film. An older woman who personally fits this palate, especially with her red hair, sits at a piano and plays out notes of the Van den Budenmayer piece and Weronika sings them back angelically. In an attached hallway, out of view of Weronika, an older man with stringy gray hair across his nearly bald head listens on, moving his hands as if summoning the words from her mouth. He periodically nods in approval of what he hears.

The man nods to the woman at the piano, a judgment passed. Weronika continues to sing. The camera now pans down to that same right index finger, the one with the scar, wrapped around the string from the portfolio. Destiny has tied her to this music.

She is walking now, briskly, in a landscape of brown leaves and darkness. She feels a pang in her chest, suddenly. She gaps for her breath in surprise, hoping the pain will pass. Then suddenly, she starts walking again, dragging her arm across the leaves as she goes. She reaches a park bench and holds her chest, her head tilted to the side. Thoughts of her mother and grandmother, both who died suddenly, likely entering her mind. She now sees an older man in a trenchcoat, suit and hat approach her, tilted on the sidewalk like her sideways head. Is he someone offering help? Bringing a portent of death? He slows his walk and then quickly, flashes Weronika. An extremely large (and obviously fake) phallus makes a brief appearance in front of her. She is puzzled for a moment, seems to laugh slightly as he walks on, her eyes continuing to follow him. Her moment of physical horror followed by a bizarre, unexpected moment of comic (cosmic?) violation. She gathers herself by applying lip balm to her mouth.

Now she enters an enormous stage with a single chair towards the front. Seven people stand in judgment in the audience — echoes of the apostles. The older man who listened now does all the talking. He asks how she is feeling. Weronika does not answer fully — she just had a small heart attack — and instead just says fine. He asks her to have a seat, she says she doesn’t mind standing (a defiant pose given her true health?) but he insists that she sit.

He starts off noting that she has no performing experience and only a high school diploma, focusing on the piano. Then he says that the vote was not unanimous, but she is the winner of their competition. He holds out his hands, she bends down to grasp them, then he kisses both of her cheeks. She looks over and sees one of the judges who looks quite upset at the announcement, a middle aged woman, another redhead, in a green hat. She will return in the film later, also passing silent judgment.

Next, Weronika is at her aunts house. She watches the elderly woman with a short, boyish, gray haircut, meander across the apartment, tracking her glassdoor to glassdoor. Weronika declares to this clearly exhausted older woman in a housecoat “you look beautiful, auntie.” She responds “if you were up all night playing cards and drinking vodka, you would look like this too.” She asks how things went.  Weronika responds well … maybe too well … now I’m scared.  She does not mention the heart attack.  Or the man who flashed her.  Or the mysteriously disapproving woman.

Now Weronika is at the back of a bus, looking over her musical scores again. We can see her reflection in the windows, her image always giving her comfort. Behind the bus, her boyfriend Antek is trailing on a motorcycle. At first she doesn’t notice him, she just keeps mouthing the musical notes. But then she looks up, takes a glance at him and waves. She signals for him to pull over at the next stop.

He kisses her on the cheek and says “I wondered when you would finally notice me.” She asks if he’s been following her for long. He says yes. He does not look at all happy. We get some exposition of what has happened since they last met, Weronika saying that her aunt said he’d called, some mention of him talking to her father. Antek gives her a wrapped present, saying that Christmas is coming up. This is the only time Antek smiles during the scene. We get some Weronika words about maybe calling him, then Antek simply declares that she did not call. Finally he says that he came to see her to tell her that he loves her and that he’s staying at the Holiday Inn, room 287. He rushes off before she can get a word out. But then Weronika (realizing her bus has left) runs after him and catches up at the next intersection. There she asks him for a ride home and clutches onto him. As he drops her off, she again gives no response to his brave declaration, she only promises to call.

There’s no mystery in Weronika. She is just a simple young woman who doesn’t know what she wants.